Victoria E. Rodríguez
LBJ School of Public Affairs
The purpose of this research project is to explore and analyze the emergent role of women in contemporary Mexican politics. To date, the mainstream literature on politics in Mexico has had little to say about women, even though their participation as political actors is visible and well documented in other Latin American countries. This lack of scholarly attention is to a certain extent explained by the fact that men dramatically outnumber women in the Mexican political elite (98% male, 2% female). However, women play a critical role as political actors in a variety of ways, and this project intends to become the first to explore the topic in a systematic way. Thus, this research will open a new path of scholarly inquiry in both the U.S. and Mexico.
Background
It is important to underscore that much scholarly work has been done on women in Mexico, but somehow this gender-related literature has overlooked their participation in politics. For the past 25-odd years, the focus of gender research and analysis has been fourfold
1) During the 1970s, within the framework of a general interest in demography, Mexico began to push forward its own population policy; at this stage, the portion of the academic analysis that related to women centered on issues such fertility rates, population control measures, etc.
2) During the late 1970s-early 1980s, as twin-plants (maquiladoras) expanded dramatically along the U.S.-Mexico border, the focus of academic attention turned to border economies and migration patterns within Mexico. An important part of these analyses focused on the role women played in these new labor markets, especially derived from the surging female employment in the maquiladoras.
3) From the mid 1980s onwards, much of the focus of gender research has been on household structures, which are also related to labor markets and survival strategies. Imporatant pieces of empirical research on female employment and occupation status shows that low income women contribute 40 percent to household sustenance.
4) From the late 1980s onwards, important pieces of scholarship have analyzed the crucial role of women at the grassroots, where they have participated actively and provided key leadership in a variety of colonia organizations and mobilization. However, the scholarly research that has recognized this role played by women, has been mostly in the context of the larger body of literature on urban social movements and popular movements in general, rather than gender-specific.
The Research Project
This project intends to fill the gap in the analytical literature described above. The objective of this research is to analyze the various ways in which women participate in the Mexican political system and contribute to shape Mexico's political scenario by looking at women in different political arenas elected positions, appointed positions, grassroots leaders, voters, feminists, wives of politicians, union leaders, etc. The analysis includes women from the various political parties in order to assess whether their primary loyalty as political actors lies with party or gender. Also, the group of women analyzed has been selected from throughout the country and from different levels of government (federal, state, local). Thus, the group that informs the analysis is balanced along regional lines, party affiliation, and level of position occupied. The purpose is to to have a truly representative sample from which broader generalizations pertaining to the role of women in Mexican politics and political life can be drawn.
Research Questions
The principal questions around which the research was conducted, from which other subsidiary questions and issues derived, are the following
1) What is the educational, family, and political background of female politicians in Mexico? In what ways is it different from other politically active women (e.g., a grassroots leader or an NGO activist)?
2) What were the principal obstacles to reaching their position? Was it an easy climb? What determined their advancement? What are their career plans for the future?
3) What political alliances have been built along gender lines? How do these alliances function? What formal organizations exist?
4) What is the public policy agenda for female politicians in Mexico? Have certain issues in the policy agenda (human rights or women's issues, for instance) been set aside for women policy decision-makers?
5) How involved are women in the decision-making process? Do they occupy senior positions that have real political "weight"? In what ways do women occupy "token" positions?
6) What is the gender agenda of women politicians in Mexico? Do they have a feminist agenda?
7) What is the discourse of women in official institutions?
8) What is the discourse on women in official institutions?
9) How are women that are politically active portrayed in the media? What is the popular response to these women?
10) Other than serving in elected or appointed political positions, in what ways have women made a mark in the political scenario of Mexico?
For the purposes of managing and analyzing the vast amount of information collected, this set of questions was grouped into five principal categories
1) Background and political history
2) Public (and self) image
3) Women and the electoral process
4) Organizational discourse on women
5) Agenda issues for the present and the future
In addition, several background papers reviewing the four sets of literature described above were prepared, as well as one which provides a general overview of the women's movement in Mexico.
Research Methodology
The research project developed during the 1994-1995 academic year in a year-long course that I taught at the LBJ School in the form of a Policy Research Project (PRP). The PRP is a unique component of the LBJ School's curriculum, and consists of an organized group research on a specific contemporary policy issue. Usually the number of students ranges from ten to twenty (eigtheen, in this case). Students participate actively in all phases of the research, and thus obtain a great deal of knowledge and experience in developing a research project.
The research agenda for this course was designed during the Fall semester, building upon the research questions outlined above. In addition, during this semester we had regular seminar meetings that served to provide an even background of knowledge for all students in the course. A principal objective of this semester, also, was to prepare for the fieldwork to be conducted in Mexico at different times in the Spring semester, beginning in January.
Various teams of students set out to conduct in-depth interviews with women from all walks of political life throughout Mexico. Four teams of five to six students worked at different times in Mexico City, and additional teams went to different parts of Oaxaca, Guanajuato, Nuevo León, and Chihuahua. In addition to conducting the interviews, some fieldwork was conducted by "shadowing" female Mexican politicians during some of their regular activities. Although due to time constraints we could not conduct as much "shadowing" as was desirable, the general objective was that each student spend sufficient time with the woman selected to have lengthy conversations with her and to observe her working and personal lives on a day-to-day basis. In total, our sample consisted of almost eigthy women.
Most of the Spring semester was devoted to analyzing the data gathered during fieldwork. For analytical purposes, we grouped the women in our sample among various "categories" women in politics (in government, in political parties, in the electoral process), and women in political life (feminists, NGOs, labor unions, and
grassroots organizations), and prepared lengthy documents that allowed us then to look across these "categories" and draw some general conclusions about the different
ways in which women are politically active in Mexico. The findings of the research, currently being processed in their final stages, will provide the bulk of a book manuscript.
Three of my students -- Olga Alvarez, Beatriz Padilla, and Al Hannah -- speaking on behalf of the entire group, will present some of our preliminary findings at this conference.